Brady C. Mallory

There will always be wars and rumors of wars as long as time continues.

Wars are waged between close friends and relatives, wars occur internationally and there are times when wars happen in our homeland.

While fires burn in the Middle East, a new one has been set in the efforts to control immigration, with the notion of preventing terrorism.

“I don’t think they’ll stop terrorism if they stop illegal immigration. Just because immigrants are in our land does not mean they will do bad,” said SDSU senior Ashley McIntosh. “Maybe they just want a better life.”

In December, the Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner’s HR4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, was introduced. The Immigration Control Act was passed in the House of Representatives, and if passed in the Senate, will create many changes in the current immigration laws that exist in America resulting from the Illegal Immigration Reform and Individual Responsibility Act of 1996.

The provisions of the Immigration Act criminalize organizations and individuals assisting undocumented immigrants, criminalize undocumented immigrants, grant state and local law enforcement agencies have authority to enforce immigration laws, further the erosion of due process, expand detention of immigrants, eliminate judicial review and turn minor crimes into aggravated felonies that carry the worst immigration consequences, among many others.

“It sends the wrong message. I think we should expand immigration, but create laws that would make sure the ones that are let into this country play by the rules,” said SDSU junior Justin Goetz.

For the immigrants who seek shelter in America, chances for survival would diminish. HR4437 would not only affect illegal immigrants, but if passed could affect the United States as well.

Last week, the Chicanos in Action group set up a table in The Union to better inform SDSU students about the detriments of HR4437.

“There are 7.2 million undocumented workers in the United States. They would need to be deported from a country already in a recession. This country would be losing that many jobs,” said Cameron Kwon, a member of the SDSU Chicanos in Action group. The primary focus of Chicanos in Action is to provide a support system for Chicano and Latino students at SDSU. Their information site, which included pamphlets, video display and posters, culminated on March 31, which is Cesar Chavez Day. Cesar Chavez was a Mexican-American agrarian labor leader, and became involved in the self-help Community Service Organization in California. Chavez valued the idea that the acceptance of all people would be a key ingredient in a successful community.